Another Win For Teachers Unions, Another Defeat For DC Students

The District of Columbia Public Schools rank below all 50 states in national math and reading tests, squatting at the bottom of the list for years at a time. More than 40 percent of D.C. students drop out altogether. Only 9 percent of the District’s high schoolers will finish college within five years of graduation. And all this failure doesn’t come cheap: The city spends $14,699 per pupil, more than all but two states and about $5,000 more than the national average.

Katherine Mangu-Ward, Last Chance For School Reform, Reason.com, May 2010

DC schools are the poster child for why public sector unions - and teachers unions in particular - need to made illegal. Michelle Rhee, who did her best to turn around this travesty in D.C., was fought tooth and nail by the teacher's union. And ultimately, the union won. Rhee was fired in October, 2010. And the teachers union won again yesterday, when an arbitrator ordered that 75 underperforming teachers fired by Rhee during their probationary period in 2008, were entitled to be reinstated with two years back pay. That is estimated to cost the D.C. Public schools $7.5 million. These people don't give a damn about students or education, just money and power. And in that, they are in full partnership with the Democrat party.

I wonder if I need to start ending all of my posts with "Teachers unions delenda est."